Out of Sodom

The Archaeology of Zoar & Lot’s Cave

Sodom is one of the more famous cities from antiquity, but fewer people are aware of the nearby city called Zoar. Similarly, most people are familiar with Abraham, but his nephew Lot is less well known. While the location of Sodom and Gomorrah and the details of their fiery destruction continue to be researched and discussed, archaeological excavations have uncovered concrete and unambiguous discoveries related to the existence, location, and history of Zoar and the Cave of Lot, both of which appear in the Genesis narrative about Sodom and the cities of the plain.

Because Zoar was never completely lost to history, and because the cave to which Lot fled was memorialized in ancient times, archaeologists have been able to make astonishing discoveries about these two places. Not only have the projects revealed information about Zoar, and by extension the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Cave of Lot has even been excavated.

Locating Zoar

Mention of Zoar goes far back into ancient times, where the city is connected with the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and Abraham and Lot. According to Genesis, Zoar was also known as Bela, and it was listed as the smallest or least important of the five cities of the plain, which, in addition to Sodom and Gomorrah, included Admah and Zeboiim.¹ In the moments just prior to their destruction, Lot fled from Sodom to Zoar, which was the only city in the area that was spared.² Afraid to stay in Zoar, however, he subsequently walked up into the mountains above the city and sought refuge in a cave.³

The Genesis narrative is the earliest confirmed reference to Zoar. The epigrapher for the Ebla expedition claims that Zoar, along with Sodom and Gomorrah, appears in tablets excavated in the Bronze Age ruins of Ebla, but the contents of those tablets have not yet been published.⁴ Regardless, Zoar was not destroyed, and it continued to be inhabited over the centuries. It was mentioned by Moses, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and possibly also the author of the book of Kings.⁵ Isaiah and Jeremiah refer to Zoar in the context of Moab rather than Ammon, Israel, Judah, or Edom, indicating its placement around the southeastern side of the Dead Sea. Historical geographers in the 19th century had a rough idea of its location based on ancient written information, but its exact placement remained a mystery.⁶ More detailed information from the Madaba Map, first made known to scholars in 1896, in addition to archaeological surveys and excavations, was necessary to locate the site.

According to a variety of sources from antiquity, Zoar persisted as a city through the times of the Nabateans, Romans, Byzantines, and into the early Islamic era. The most illustrative and geographically precise of these sources is the Madaba Map, which was created around AD 542 as part of a mosaic floor in the Church of Saint George, located in present-day Jordan. With its rediscovery in modern times came information key to locating Zoar, the Cave of Lot, and by extension the other cities of the plain. The map shows Zoar at the southeastern corner of the Dead Sea, confirming what many explorers had thought based on other ancient sources and old place names which gave useful but imprecise clues.

A chronicler from the fifth-sixth century had mentioned Zoar and its fort, and a sixth-century pilgrim who claimed to have visited Zoar noted that there were many hermits around. But neither gave detailed information about where this city was located.⁷ Slightly earlier, a fourth-century Roman source had also noted a Roman military encampment nearby.⁸ Subsequent archaeological excavations found this fort at the site of Umm at-Tawabin overlooking the area, and several Byzantine period tombstones from the area have been identified as belonging to military officers.⁹

Also around this time, a pilgrim named Egeria mentioned the bishopric of Zoar, further distinguishing the town as a center of Christianity with a bishop, and indeed a tombstone was found with a Greek inscription for Apsis the bishop from AD 369.¹⁰ Prior to this, Eusebius, who lived in the third–fourth century, had written about Zoar being located at the southeast side of the Dead Sea, as did Jerome just after AD 400.¹¹ Going back further still, Ptolemy, writing in the second century, described Zoar as belonging to the newly formed province of Arabia Petraea, indicating that the city must have been located on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.¹² The first–second century Babatha Papyri also mention Zoar, but without giving any geographic details.¹³ One of the most useful ancient references comes from the first-century writings of Josephus, who recorded that the Dead Sea extended as far as Zoar of Arabia.¹⁴ This early source and its description indicate that Zoar was not located in Perea, but rather at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea.

With this compiled knowledge, archaeologists could begin to piece together a more precise location for Zoar, carry out surveys and excavations, and begin uncovering the ancient city. One of the most significant explorations associated the ancient city with the area around the modern town of Safi, placing Byzantine period Zoar at the site of Khirbet Sheik ‘Isa.¹⁵ Future research and excavations substantiated this hypothesis and expanded investigation into the Old Testament period Bronze Age town of Zoar.

However, before modern excavations of Zoar began in 1995, the related and nearby Cave of Lot was rediscovered and then excavated in 1988.

Lot’s Cave

Located on the slope of the mountains just northeast of Zoar, Lot’s Cave had been visited by pilgrims in antiquity but abandoned and forgotten by the ninth century AD. Thanks to the Madaba Map, which marked its approximate location and showed its proximity to Zoar, the area was thoroughly explored, and an intriguing structure adjacent to the cave was found. When excavated, it was revealed to be an ancient Byzantine church, which had been constructed at the site to mark and commemorate the historic location. Three inscriptions referring to Lot were discovered in the ruins, thus solidifying the cave’s association with Lot. When the cave itself was excavated, materials dating all the way back to the Early Bronze and Middle Bronze Ages were discovered, demonstrating that the cave had been in use prior to and into the time of Lot but then avoided or ignored until early Christians built a basilica there in honor of Lot.¹⁶ The location of this cave further established that the ancient town of Zoar should be in close proximity, in the area of Ghawr al-Safi.

Excavations around the modern village of Safi began by exposing the Medieval period ruins of the site, at which time it was a center of the sugar industry. Underneath lay a flourishing city of the Byzantine period, complete with at least two impressive churches and a cemetery with hundreds of inscribed tombstones.¹⁷ With the Roman fort having been identified and excavated, the city recorded by numerous sources from the first to sixth centuries could at this point be definitively established as the ancient city of Zoar.

To date, architecture from Byzantine and Roman period Zoar has been excavated, and a few sherds from the time of Lot, Moses, and the prophets have also been found, as well as an adjacent Bronze Age cemetery. Recent surveys in the area indicate that the ruins of the town to which Lot fled from Sodom may have been only footsteps away from the Byzantine city of Zoar.¹⁸ The remains of the city from the time of Abraham and Lot are still yet to be uncovered, but based on the survival of the city over the centuries and the evidence thus far discovered, Old Testament Zoar is almost certainly there under the dirt.

Hopefully future archaeological investigation will reveal more about this extremely ancient place and solve some of the mysteries of Zoar and Lot once and for all.

Notes
1. Genesis 14:2–8.
2. Genesis 19:20–25.
3. Genesis 19:30.
4. Complete translations of the discovered tablets from Ebla have not yet been published. Reports and discussion about the content of a few tablets have appeared in articles and books. Sodom (No. 6522; TM. 76. G. 524), Gomorrah (No. 1008; TM 75.G 1570 and No. 1671; TM 75.G 2233), Zoar (No. 1024; TM 75.G 1586). Cf. Pettinato, “Testi cuneiformi del 3. millennio in paleocananeo rinvenuti nella campagna di scavi (1974) a Tell Mardikh-Ebla.” Orientalia 44 (1975); Millard, Alan. “Ebla and the Bible.” Bible Review 8.2 (1992).
5. Deuteronomy 34:3; Jeremiah 48:34; Isaiah 15:5; 2 Kings 8:21.
6. Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Regions (1856).
7. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica.
8. Notitia Dignitatum.
9. Konstantinos Politis, Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I (2021); Alexandra Ariotti, “A survey of the Nabataean/Roman Site, Umm at-Tawabin, Ghor as-Safi, Jordan,” Palestinian Exploration Quarterly 149:1 (2017).
10. Egeria, Itinerarium Egeriae; Konstantinos Politis, Ancient Landscapes of Zoara II (2023).
11. Eusebius of Caesarea, Onomasticon; Jerome, Onomasticon.
12. Ptolemy, Geography.
13. Babatha Papyri ca. AD 110–132 from the Cave of the Letters.
14. Josephus, Wars 4.482; cf. Josephus, Antiquities 1.204, 14,18.
15. William Albright, “The Archaeological Results of an Expedition to Moab and the Dead Sea,” BASOR 14 (1924).
16. Konstantinos Politis, Sanctuary of Lot at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata in Jordan (2012).
17. Politis, Ancient Landscapes of ZoaraII.
18. Politis and Kennedy, “Ghawr al-Safi Archaeological Project 2025,” HSNES 2025 Season Report to the DoAJ.